Previews

Starcraft II Hands-on Preview

Jim Raynor and the Queen of Blades are coming back for another round of real-time strategy mayhem. We check out the StarCraft II multiplayer beta.

Spiffy:

Plays like the original StarCraft, only better; mass-selection makes army management much easier.

Iffy:

RTS neophytes will probably still get massacred on Battle.net; we still need to play the single-player campaign; no news on beta release date.

On a fundamental level, StarCraft II is simply the original StarCraft remade with 3D graphics. After all, you can't (or shouldn't) reinvent a game with such a dedicated competitor base -- just imagine a baseball 2.0 where all the rules were changed. The sports analogy isn't too far off from the truth; StarCraft is one of the most competitive e-sports in the world, and it's been called the unofficial national sport of South Korea. But while the basics of the game have remained intact to keep from alienating the devoted player base, the changes are sweeping enough to make any StarCraft veteran take pause and get used to what's new.

I recently had the chance to play the StarCraft II multiplayer beta, which you can sign up for by logging into Battle.net and opting in. Like its predecessor, SC II presents three playable species, an innovative control interface, and Blizzard's signature quality in graphics and audio. The changes are more subtle than something like a new playable faction, but profound enough to have a major impact on the game.

This massed aerial attack force means business.

Truly Limitless

Let's start with some of the biggest changes. Gone is the 12 unit selection limit from the original StarCraft. Now you have limitless selection, allowing you to control the movements of a massive force at once. According to Lead Producer Chris Sigaty, this is one of the most controversial changes that the StarCraft II development team has decided to implement. Will it make the game that much easier now that you don't have to set up quite so many control groups? From my hands-on experience with the game, it definitely helped to be able to control the massed Zealots that were the first strategy I employed in a battle against a Zerg player.

But you'll still want to work with control groups in order to precisely direct your melee units, your medium range skirmishers, your long-range artillery, your aerial units, and so on. Control groups are also key to managing your build queues, as you can now assign multiple unit production buildings to a single control group, making it a cinch to get mass production going. You can still manually hotkey to create these groups, but more casual players will be able to click an empty frame in the HUD to do the same.

Higher ground is now of utmost importance, as units with this advantage can fire down at enemies below without repercussion. Setting up a firing line along a cliff can be effective, especially with your long-range units. The new Xel'naga watchtowers play an important role as well, as they can help your scouting efforts. Take control of a tower with one of your ground units, and they provide line-of-sight in a wide radius.

StarCraft II maps include destructible barriers that create alternate paths and shortcut routes that can come in very handy. You can use these to access the new high-yield mineral resources (they're golden and shiny), or to take a more advantageous route towards an enemy's base.